I think by now we can safely acknowledge that we are dual beings comprising body and soul. During my teenage years I tried to simplify things for myself and view everyone as just another soul. My aim was to develop an objective view towards the actions taken by others and also increase my ability to love the people I don’t know. This decision to change my way of thinking caused some problems with someone I’ve known all my life, let’s call this person John. John held the belief that my allegiance should be to him no matter what he did or who he negatively affected. John had very little respect for women and people in general. Once he viewed another person as having little financial or material assets, he felt little desire to treat that person with respect. Now it’s quite obvious the mentality I was trying to adopt was quite different from John’s and he constantly became upset with me disapproving of the way he treated people. Now John was very close to me and felt that no matter what he did, I should support his actions and maintain allegiance to him because we were family. I’ve known situations where people would support the actions of someone close to them, even though that person maybe hurting another human being. However, if the same action is taken by a stranger, that stranger would be heavily criticised. I know my view point may not be one others are willing to accept and it’s fine. The beautiful thing about life is that we all have our own and we can live it anyway we see fit.

My choice to not support John’s actions has led to the demise of our relationship but it’s a decision that I’m comfortable with. No one should be allowed to mistreat another human being under any circumstance and more so, I shouldn’t be expected to support it. My choice to view everyone as just another soul ensures that no preferential views are given to the actions of those closest to me and that I can develop the ability to love those I don’t know just as much as I love those who are closest to me.

“In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same”…Albert Einstein